Lightning Lad (DC)
|goals = Defeat villains Get revenge on the Super-Moby Dick of Space Marry Saturn Girl Save the 30th century from Superboy Prime Defeat Time Trapper (all succeeded) |occupation = Legionnaire Founding member of the Legion of Superheroes Workforce Member (formerly) |family = |friends = Cosmic Boy (best friend), Saturn Girl, Brainiac-5 Superman, Supergirl, Dawnstar, Colossal Boy, Shrinking Violet, Invisible Kid, Polar Boy, Blok, R.J. Brande, Mon-El |enemies = Darkseid, Superboy Prime, Time Trapper, Prince Evillo, Super-Moby Dick of Space, Computo, Fatal Five, Legion of Supervillains |type of hero = Elemental Superhero}} Lightning Lad (real name Garth Ranzz) is a founding member of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th Century, and is character and superhero in DC Comics. Lightning Lad was created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino, first appearing in Adventure Comics '' #247. (1958) Born on the planet Winath, he gained electric powers during an encounter with Lightning Beasts on Korbal. He is known for being fun-loving but hot-headed and aggressive. Every Winathian has a twin, and his sister Ayla is Lightning Lass. The exception to this rule is his older brother Mekt, who was labeled a freak and became the villain Lightning Lord. His best friend is Legion co-founder Cosmic Boy, and his wife is co-founder Saturn Girl. Their two children are Graym Ranzz, and Garridan Ranzz who grows up to become the villain Validus. In Reboot Legion continuity, Garth uses the alias '''Live Wire'. This version has also been a member of Workforce. In Prime Legion continuity, he uses the name Lightning Lad again. Biography Early Life Garth Ranzz was born on the planet Winath, and is the son of Luc and Perla Ranzz, and has siblings named Mekt and Ayla. When he was fourteen years old, Garth and his siblings attended a party on a alien planet, but when returning home, their shuttlecraft malfunctioned and they crashed on Korbal. The siblings discovered that their ship had run out of power, and that its engines needed to be recharged. Garth lured a herd of Lighting Beasts towards the craft, hoping to use their electrical discharges to repower the ship. The animals' energy bursts struck them instead, and the three were imbued with the ability to generate electricity. The siblings used their new found powers to recharge the ship's engines, and returned home. The Legion When Mekt mysteriously disappeared into the galactic underworld, Garth set out to try to find his brother via a shuttle. He boarded the shuttle en route to the planet Earth, where he met Rokk Krinn of Braal, Imra Ardeen of Titan, and R.J. Brande, a wealthy industrialist who claimed to be the third richest man in the Galaxy. Garth and Rokk bonded quickly, but Imra saw the two as childish and immature. When an assassin attempted to murder Brande, Garth, Rokk, and Imra used their powers to defeat him and save Brande. Impressed by thee teens' bravery, Brande made a petition to the United Planets to form a Legion of Superheroes, an ever-growing cosmic team inspired by the exploits of the twentieth century heroes Superboy and Supergirl. The three became founding and charter members of the team, with Rokk, Imra, and Garth taking the codenames Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Boy (but would later become known as Lightning Lad through most of his career). Death Saturn Girl learned that one of the Legionnaire was fated to die in combat against Zaryan the Conqueror, and so she suspended everyone on the team because she didn't want her teammates to die. Lightning Lad ignored the suspension, and fought the conqueror, and succeeded in destroying Zaryan's ship. However, Zaryan managed to fire a freeze-blast that killed him, and Garth's sister Ayla adopted the name Lightning Lass and took her brother's place on the team. Resurrection Mon-El discovered a way to bring Garth back to life, and they could go to the Lightning World and channel the power of a bolt into a Daxamite rod that could resurrect him. However, such a plan would cost the one holding the lightning rod at the point of impact to be killed. The Legion decided the risk was worth bringing him back, and traveled to the Lightning World. Rather then let a member sacrifice themselves, the team decided to all wield lightning rods to resurrect Garth, not allowing fate to decide for them. Saturn Girl decided to sacrifice herself for Garth, and replaced her rod with one made of Duralim, a highly conductive metal, which would increase the chances of her being struck down rather than anyone else. She never had the opportunity to do so however, as Chameleon Boy's pet, Proty morphed into her and used the rod in the ritual. Garth was resurrected as the cost of Proty's life, and he rejoined the Legion as a full time member. However, due to Legion bylaws which prohibited members with similar powers being on the team together, Ayla's spot on the roster was forfeit. She managed to stay on the team however, as her powers altered only a short time later. Adventures and Marriage Garth investigated a distress call from a passing cargo ship, and came into conflict with a creature named the Super-Moby Dick of Space. Garth's became infected with his own eclectic blast due it reflecting off the creature, hitting him in the arm. He returned to the Legion Clubhouse, and Garth was forced to amputate his arm to save off infection, but was a given a cybernetic prosthetic. Consumed with a need for revenge, Lightning Lad tracked down the creature, and blasted with his new cybernetic arm, which was amplified, and reduced the creature in size. During this time, Garth and Imra grew closer, and eventually fell in love while doing missions together. On one mission, the two were forced to stage a faux wedding to retire from the Legion, enabling three Murran alien spies to take their place, who used the names Blackout Boy, Magnetic Kid and Size Lad. Garth and Imra knew of the spies' presence and agreed to plan in order to draw them out, but were upset that their marriage was not real after completing the mission. Over time, Lightning Lad came under the thrall of Prince Evillo, and was forced to join his Devil's Dozen. Garth eventually gained control of his mind, and rebelled against the prince, and had his missing arm restored by Evillo's scientist, Dr. Zan Orbal. Garth and Imra married after growing older, and had twin children, but Darkseid took one of the twins, and experimented on the child. The child was transformed into a mutant aberration, and Darkseid sent the child back in time five years where he became the Fatal Five member Validus. Garth and Imra later learned the truth about their missing son, but their second child, Graym, proved to be a healthy boy, and the couple retired to raise him. The two returned to the legion and continued to fight against threats such as Darkseid, the Fatal Five and the Legion of Supervillains. Crisis on Infinite Earths Although the Legion survived the Crisis, the Time Trapper took advantage of the chaos to isolate and weaken them. The trapper made the team believe Superboy wasn't the real one and forget about her recently fallen member Supergirl, but the Legion endured. Five Year Gap During the "Five Year Gap", Garth became incapciated from the Valdius plague which ravaged Winath, and Imra resigned from the Legion due to feeling disillusioned by the Earth government, and feeling more at home. Garth and Imra returned to Winath and took over running a Winathian Lighting Ring plantation, and became wealthy. The two replaced their super heroism with a necessary need to help others, feeding a galaxy suffering from hunger. When the Legion was reformed in 2994, the couple helped them out, but didn't rejoin, and had two children named Dacey and Dorritt. Zero Hour Garth's final adventure involved the Time Trapper, as the conclusion ended with the destruction of the Legion's timeline in a cosmic crisis brought back by Hal Jordan, who was mind-controlled by Parallax. Post Infinite-Crisis The Legion was restored due the events other Crisis that was created by Superboy Prime and Alex Luthor. Despite the restoration, the history was slightly altered as evidenced by the trip of six Legionnaires to the time present. Once again, Rokk, Imra, and Garth formed a team backed by R.J. Brande and travelled back to the past to induct Superboy. In addition, they also recruited the next Superboy, and Garth talked Brainiac-5 into inducting Supergirl into the team. Around this time, xenophobia started spreading through the galaxy due to the Time Trapper manipulation and the efforts of Earth-Man. The Legion agreed the future was too dangers four Superboy, and they would not visit him again after the war against the Anti-Monitor. During this period, Garth and Imra's children went missing, and the witch hunt led by Earth-Man forced the Legion to go underground. As a result of his children's disappearance, Garth became very short-tempered, but the situation started to look up when Superman returned to rejoin the Legion. After Earth-Man's defeat, Lightning Lad took Superman back to his own time, as the two recalled old times when they were younger. Batman showed up to tell them that two Legionnaires had been found dead in Gotham, Garth took his friends' bodies back to the future, wondering who was trying to destroy the Legion. Despite Earth-Man's defeat, the tension between the Legion and the United Planets was still high, and they looked to shut down the Legion. Garth was sick of dealing with them, as they would put his friends down, but would crawl back to them every time a villain came up. Superboy Prime ended up in the 30th century and freed the Legion of Supervillains, which forced the Legion to recall Superman and bring the two Legions of different timelines to their own universe. Garth teamed up with the two other incarnations of him, Live Wire and the other Lightning Lad's to save the 30th century from Superboy Prime. During the final battle in Vanishing Point, Garth, Imra, and Rokk combined their powers to summon Legionnaires of every time and universe, and with their assistance, defeated the Time Trapper for good. Powers and Abilities Powers *'Energy Absorption:' Garth could absorb electrical energy into his body and re-channel it for offensive purposes, and can't be harmed from the effects of his powers. *'Electrokinesis:' Garth can generate and control fields of electrical energy, and can channel this energy through his hands and project it as a super-heated discharge. Unlike true lightning, he can manipulate electric discharges in non-terrestrial environments, such as outer space. **'Electro Blast:' Garth can produce electro-static effects by clapping his hands together, but later was able to hone his abilities until he could fire bolts of lightning from his hands. *'Electromagnetism:' Garth can send his electricity through conductive metals. *'Molecular Reconstruction:' Garth (as Live Wire) entered the body of Jan Arrah, he gained the ability to transmute elements. Former Powers *'Cybernetic Enhancement:' After his lighting reflected off the Super-Moby Dick of Space, his arm became infected, and had to be amputated to stave off infection. His missing limb was replaced with a robotic arm, which amplified and increased the magnitude of his powers. However, Lighting Lad would discard the prosthetic arm after his missing limb was restored by Dr. Zan Orbal. Abilities *'Combatant:' Lighting Lad is an amateur combatant, having been taught basic hand-to-hand combat to fight villains. Equipment *'Legion Flight Ring:' Enables the wearer the ability to fly in atmospheric and outer space environments. Portrayals Animated *In Legion of Super Heroes, he was voiced by Andy Milder, who voiced the character again in Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League: Cosmic Clash. Live-Action *In Smallville, he was portrayed by Calum Worthy, who also played Dez Wade, and will portray Speedball in the MCUs New Warriors. Gallery Lightning_Lad_01.jpg|Lightning Lad. Ranzz_family.jpg|Garth with Imra and his children. Garth_Ranzz_(New_Earth).jpg|Earth Prime Lightning Lad. Lightning_Lad_Justice_001.png Lightning_Lad_DCAU.jpg|Garth in the DCAU. Lightning_Lad_LSHAU_001.jpg|Garth in the Legion of Super Heroes series. Smallville-Garth.jpg|Calum Worthy as Lightning Lad in Smallville. Lego-Garth.jpg|Lego Lightning Lad. Trivia *In the early days of the Legion, Garth went by the code name Lighting Boy. *Andy Milder and Calum Worthy both have portrayed the character, and worked together in Austin and Ally. Category:DC Heroes Category:Spouses Category:Elementals Category:Male Category:Comic Book Heroes Category:Injustice Heroes Category:Fighter Category:In Love Category:Parents Category:Tragic Category:Retired Category:Protectors Category:Protector of Innocence Category:Siblings Category:Deceased Category:Revived Category:Related to Villain Category:Superheroes Category:Aliens